Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!pdn!boake2!jc3b21!fgd3
From: fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Open a console window from Lattice
Message-ID: <812@jc3b21.UUCP>
Date: 11 Dec 89 19:44:34 GMT
References: <129043@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Organization: St. Petersburg Jr. College, FL
Lines: 37


     Perhaps I'm missing something.  If you want to open an Intuition
window and then use the console.device to handle text output to that window
the process is pretty straightforward.  You'll need a message port, so call
CreatePort().  It's documented in Autodocs1.3:LinkerLibs/amiga.lib.doc.
Next you'll need a console message structure.  Call CreateStdIO().  Maybe
you should call CreateExtIO().  I read some discussion about that recently.
You'll find a description of CreateExtIO() in
Autodocs1.3:LinkerLibs/amiga.lib.doc.  You won't find any documentation for
CreateStdIO().  I shouldn't say that.  You might find some.  I didn't,
though, and I looked pretty hard.  But CreateStdIO() is the one used in the
RKM: Libraries and Devices.  It's what I used, and it worked.

     Once you've set up your message port and message structure you're
nearly done.  Just call load ConsoleMsg->io_Data with your window pointer
and call OpenDevice("console.device", 0, ConsoleMsg, 0).  ConsoleMsg is the
pointer to the message structure returned by CreateStdIO.

     To write to the console you load your message structure as follows:

	  ConsoleMsg->io_Command = CMD_WRITE;
	  ConsoleMsg->io_Length = (ULONG)-1;
	  ConsoleMst->io_Data = (APTR)String;

and call DoIO(ConsoleMsg).  CMD_WRITE is defined in exec/io.h.  You use
ANSI escape sequences to position the cursor and set display attributes.

     Well, maybe it's not so straightforward after all.  But doing it isn't
the hard part.  The hard part is finding out how to do it.  THE AMIGA
REALLY NEEDS BETTER DOCUMENTATION!

--Fabbian Dufoe
  350 Ling-A-Mor Terrace South
  St. Petersburg, Florida  33705
  813-823-2350

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